作為一個用於微流體技術與質譜儀分析的介面，該技術必須要能夠適用於現存已有的微流體晶片，使用外接式的裝置能夠在不改變微流體晶片本身的設計的情況下輕易地套用於微流體晶片上，在本研究中我們使用低成本的環狀超聲波共振壓電片達成直接從微流體晶片噴灑出樣本的結果，並且作為微流體晶片與質譜儀分析之間的介面儀器。我們設計了一個挟持器於微流體晶片的末端，使得微流體晶片能夠挟持住環狀超聲波共振壓電片並且在不需要任何媒介，如：毛細管，的情況下就能將樣本由微流體晶片的末端向外噴灑，液體樣本於微流體晶片出口端的擴散情形以及環狀超聲波共振壓電片間歇性的噴灑情形皆受到觀察與分析，為了能夠進一步的分析環狀超聲波共振壓電片對微流體晶片上的微流道的流場影響我們加入了流場可視化粒子，於質譜儀分析之前我們先使用了基質(matrix) 作為樣本噴灑與樣本沉積的測試，後續我們展示了胜肽樣本的質譜儀分析，並且比較藉由環狀超聲波共振壓電片噴灑與傳統的滴定管移液沉積之胜肽樣本於質譜儀下的訊號強度以及均勻度，藉由環狀超聲波共振壓電片噴灑之胜肽樣本的結果顯示低使用量以及高均勻性的優點。;The interfacing methods for microfluidics to mass spectrometry should be compatible for the microfluidic chips that are already in use. An external interfacing device can be easily applied to the microfluidic chips without changing the original designs on the chips. In this study, we achieved the spray from chip by introducing a ring-shaped piezoelectric acoustic atomizer (piezo-ring), which is commercially available and low-cost, and used it as the microfluidic to MALDI – MS interfacing device. We designed a holder pattern at the outlet of the PDMS chip, making the chip be able to mount the piezo-ring and directly spray samples from the outlet without any intermedium such as capillaries. The sample spreading issue on the fluidic outlet surface was discussed and the pulsatile spraying behavior of piezo-ring was observed as well. We also added the visualize particles into the microchannel for the further evaluation of pumping effects to the microchannel by piezo-ring actuation. The deposition process of matrix was obtained before the MS analysis. The MS signals of peptides were then demonstrated by mass spectrometry and we compared the signal intensity of peptides by piezo-ring with traditional pipetting method. The low use of sample volume and uniform signal intensity were achieved by the piezo-ring-on-chip device.
